Dell Ultrasharp 2005FPW 20.1" Widescreen LCD

Reviews: Multimedia

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
Dell
Apr. 25, 2006

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Taking a Closer Look

The Dell 2005FPW LCD Monitor is aesthetically neutral when it's all assembled and operational. The bezel is just a plain thin black bezel that is curved outward slightly on the bottom of the panel. On the bottom of the panel are six buttons. From right to left, the first button is power, then there are three to manage the picture quality (such as brightness, contrast, etc!), and the final two are for changing the inputs of the screen as well as for managing picture in picture. I didn't really notice anything I would consider a major design flaw. The stand employed by Dell is adjustable up and down, so you can easily change the height of the monitor to be viewed at a comfortable angle. To adjust the height of the stand, you have to press buttons located on the rear of the stand. This will also keep the stand from succumbing to gravity over time if it is in an extended position.

The monitor will also pivot from the tradition landscape position to the more unique portrait position. While some may find this a little odd, as someone who has used the portrait orientation for over 4 years on my display at my real job (yes, surprise surprise, this isn't my full time job), I can say that when I'm writing code or designing web pages it is far more beneficial to have a taller and skinnier screen that it is to have a widescreen display, especially considering that I'm not watching DVDs or playing games at my job. I confirmed that the monitor did pivot and while I had to tell Nvidia's drivers to change the orientation, it worked flawlessly except for having to rearrange my desktop icons. You should also note that when you upgrade your drivers with a pivoted monitor, you would have to go in and reset the settings the next time you reboot (the monitor will be back to its default orientation). Finally, any screens before the OS loads the graphics drivers (OS boot screen, BIOS screen, Windows setup, etc) are still in the traditional landscape orientation.

On the back of the stand is an area to route cables through. The back of the stand has two flexible rubber pieces that you can manipulate to route the power, display and USB cables. One of the problems however, is that when you go to pivot your display you may find that the display is tugging on the wires in the harness. In addition, when rotating back from portrait mode to landscape mode you have to reorganize the cables to keep them hidden from view.

One of the issues that seems to haunt the 2005FPW is a backlight issue. A little research shows that some people find that the backlight of the LCD panel (what provides all the illumination on the LCD panel) is more intense at the corners than in the center of the display. While I noticed that my corners were lighter than the center of the screen, it certainly was not unbearable for any of my uses. It was not noticeable at all during regular desktop work, or during games that I frequent. This isn't to say the problem doesn't exist, but I have not found uneven backlight distribution to be that much of a problem during my use of the Dell 2005FPW. (I personally own a Dell 2005FPW as well and have used it for over a year. While there is a little bit of backlight bleed-thru, it has never been an issue for me. It's noticeable only when you have pretty much an entirely black screen, and it never bothered me. - Ed.)

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Page 1: Introduction & First Looks
Page 2: Taking a Closer Look
Page 3: Setup
Page 4: Testing - Display
Page 5: Testing - Features
Page 6: Dell Tech Support Experience
Page 7: Conclusion

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